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Project opportunities with Dr Louise Ellis

About Dr Louise Ellis

I am dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of young people. My current research activities are heavily focused on improving our understanding, prevention and treatment of mental health problems through the use of the Internet and other multimedia tools (e.g., games). This is a really exciting area of research because such tools could have far-reaching impact and make a real difference to the health and well-being of young people.

Dr Louise Ellis is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney.

Dr Louise Ellis is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. She has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Western Sydney and is dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of young people. Her prior positions include Research Officer at the Inspire Foundation, Principal Clinician at the MULTILT clinic (Macquarie University) and Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research. Louise is a registered Psychologist and full member of the Australian Psychological Society.

Dr Ellis’ doctoral work (entitled ‘Peers helping peers: The effectiveness of a peer support program in enhancing self-concept and other desirable outcomes’) involved an ambitious large-scale multi-method research project to critically test the impact of a widely-implemented peer support program in assisting Year 7 students in their passage through adolescence and transition to secondary school. The research design implemented in Dr Ellis’ thesis was if such high quality that examiners identified her methodology as a “benchmark study on best practice” on which future intervention research studies would ideally be modelled.

Dr Ellis’ primary research interests include mental health, self-concept, peer support, and learning difficulties/disabilities. Recently, she has become particularly interested in the development and evaluation of web-based interventions designed to improve mental health. She is an academic member of Prometheus (http://www.prometheus.net.au/), a research focused community in the Faculty of Health Sciences. The research goals of Prometheus are aimed at improving behavioural health across the lifespan through the use of cutting edge technology, such as the Internet and multimedia, as well as drawing from established contemporary scientific and clinical practices in psychology and mental health.

Dr Ellis is currently involved in several major research projects in the area of mental health, technology and disability.

Selected publications

Ellis, L. A., Marsh, H. W., & Craven, R. G. (in press). Addressing the Challenges Faced by Early Adolescents: A Mixed-Method Evaluation of the Benefits of Peer Support. American Journal of Community Psychology.

Ellis, L.A., Wheldall, K., & Beaman (2007). The research locus and conceptual basis for MULTLIT: Why we do what we do. Australian Journal of Learning Disabilities, 12(2), 61-65.

Ellis, L. A. (2005). Revisiting the educational psychology research on educating students with learning difficulties (Australian Education Review, No 48, pp.1-66). Camberwell, VIC: Australian Council for Education Research.